02
Jun

“Please Retweet” Triggers 4x More Retweets, Data Suggests

Do you add “Please Retweet” or “Please RT” to your tweets? If not, you might want to consider doing so. On HubSpot Blog, Dan Zarrella shared his analysis of more than 10,000 tweets, which showed messages that included a request for a retweet were more likely to be shared:

51% of messages that included “Please retweet” were retweeted more than once

39% of messages with “Please RT” were retweeted more than once

Just 12% of messages with neither request were retweeted more than once

To me, the interesting difference isn’t that the request for action itself generates more retweets—in fact, we might compare it to the business adage “ask for the sale.” The intriguing stat is that “Please retweet” garners more action than “Please RT.” Perhaps the full spell-out implies the sender invested more time composing the message and is more serious about wanting a retweet—and that may make the reader more willing to comply. What do you make of the difference?

What do you think of these stats? Will you start adding the call to action to your tweets?